Crispy Rice Cakes with Chilli Pork Sauce

Name: Crispy Rice Cakes with Chilli Pork Sauce
Yield: Serves 6–8
Cuisine: Cambodian
Ingredients: 25 ml fish sauce; 20 ml fresh lime juice, strained; 2 makrut lime leaves, finely shredded; 75 g roasted cashews, ground; ½ punnet micro watercress, snipped; 5 cloves garlic, minced; 3 small dried chillies, soaked in hot water until softened, then finely chopped; 5 red shallots, minced; 3 small red chillies, minced; 150 ml coconut cream; 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 3 tablespoons shaved palm sugar; 100 ml coconut milk; vegetable oil, for deep-frying; 3 cups cooked jasmine rice, spread out to dry on a tray overnight; 120 g minced pork; 20 ml vegetable oil

Preparation info

Serves
6–8

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Fire

By Christine Manfield

Published 2008

About

This is a great way to use up leftover rice, a common practice in Cambodia and Thailand. The cooked rice is dried out, pressed into flat cakes and deep-fried until crisp. Making the rice cakes bite-size makes them easier to eat. The rich pork sauce is used for dipping and makes a great snack with drinks or as a shared start to a meal.

Ingredients

3 cups cooked jasmine rice, spread out to dry on a tray overnight
vegetable oil, for deep-frying

Method

To prepare the rice cakes, mould the dried rice into small rounds and flatten, using about a tablespoon of rice for each cake. Heat the oil in a deep-fryer or large saucepan to 180°C and deep-fry the cakes a few at a time until crisp and golden. Drain on paper towel and continue until all the cakes are fried.

To make the chilli pork sauce, heat the oil in a wok and stir-fry the pork and